Castrated ontologizing: A Lacanian critique of metaphysical desire.

Abstract

In this article, I aim to account for the desire at the root of metaphysical/ontological practice by drawing upon Jacques Lacan's treatment of the formation of desire and language in human subjectivity. In the section, The Fundamental Ontological Proposition, I condense the practice of metaphysics into the actual declaration of a single, highly peculiar "fundamental ontological proposition," and subsequently analyze its 12 "formally invariant characteristics." This argumentatively situates the phenomenon of metaphysical practice squarely within the field of desire in its connection to language. In the section, Castration and the Name-of-the-Father, I explicate Lacan's approach to desire/language through his notions of "castration" and "le nom-du-père," which he elaborates in detail through his 1957-1958 treatment of the Oedipal dialectic and the writings of this period. I show the close relationship that erotic alienation possesses to the condensation of a subject of language. In the section, Ontologizing as Autoerotic Fantasy, I return to the set of formally invariant characteristics of the fundamental ontological proposition, and interpret them in light of the just-explained Lacanian understanding of languaged subjectivity. I show that the fundamental ontological proposition can be interpreted as a means by which to, in fantasy, deny the structurally constitutive castration of its speaker. I conclude with several suggestions toward further research at the intersection of Lacanian psychoanalysis and metaphysical theory and practice. Public Significance StatementThis article advances the idea that Jacques Lacan's teaching on desire and language can be used to shed light upon the sources and aims of metaphysical practice. Relevant for philosophically minded psychoanalysts and psychoanalytically conversant philosophers, this reading of Lacan pursues an interdisciplinary dialogue concerned with the role desire plays in even the most abstract theorizing.